CURRENT NEWS AND IDEAS

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the election of Prime Minister Joe Clark. “Joe Who?” millions will ask. Don’t worry. That’s what he was called in 1979 too. There is a modest effort underway to try burnish his legacy. It includes a play that recently had a Clark-like run – i.e. short – on a Toronto stage. Neil Hrab reviews 1979 and finds it marred by earnest overreach, rather like the man.

The beatification of Jody Wilson-Raybould as the defender of Canada’s rule of law against the depredations of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minions continues. But there’s another side to this story, writes Brian Giesbrecht. While her boss was trying to bend the law for SNC-Lavalin, Wilson-Raybould was doing the same to advance a radical Indigenous rights agenda.

Dalhousie University interim president Peter MacKinnon is a rare bird – a blue-chip member of the Canadian academic establishment who is standing up for free expression against campus social justice bullies. The mob is trying to get him fired, writes Josh Dehaas, but MacKinnon has the stature, ideas, and courage needed to take them on.

THE ASK

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HOT READS

Much of the news coverage and political reaction after the hideous slaughter of 49 innocent Muslims in Christchurch last week focused on the reputed rise and growing menace of “far-right extremism.” As evil and dangerous as this phenomenon is, it bears noting that Islamist extremism remains, by far, the world’s most lethal terrorist threat. Islamophobia did not spring unbidden from the twisted minds of western racists, as Patrick Keeney reminds us in his thoughtful essay on the deep roots of Islamic “religious totalitarianism”.

The humourless scolds of the modern left have almost exterminated political satire. If Molière or Twain were writing today, they’d be fighting off human rights complaints and protestors would disrupt their public readings. Here at C2C Journal, we’re trying to keep some fun alive – a Samizdat of satire, if you will. One such effort sprang from Joshua Lieblein’s musings about what might happen if he went looking for a publisher for his conservative-themed Great Canadian Novel. His satirical memo from a traumatized manuscript reader to her editor boss will brighten your day.

Justin Trudeau is in such foul odour these days he’s at risk of losing the progressive base he stole from the NDP in 2015. That’s great news for NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who until recently looked like the deader of the two men walking. But let’s not forget that Singh’s leadership got off to such a rocky start partly because of news stories about his long history of playing footsie with Sikh extremists. Gaurav Singhmar, an Edmonton writer who like Singh has roots in the Punjab, was among the first to do that story on the eve of the 2017 NDP leadership vote.

HOT READS

Much of the news coverage and political reaction after the hideous slaughter of 49 innocent Muslims in Christchurch last week focused on the reputed rise and growing menace of “far-right extremism.” As evil and dangerous as this phenomenon is, it bears noting that Islamist extremism remains, by far, the world’s most lethal terrorist threat. Islamophobia did not spring unbidden from the twisted minds of western racists, as Patrick Keeney reminds us in his thoughtful essay on the deep roots of Islamic “religious totalitarianism”.

The humourless scolds of the modern left have almost exterminated political satire. If Molière or Twain were writing today, they’d be fighting off human rights complaints and protestors would disrupt their public readings. Here at C2C Journal, we’re trying to keep some fun alive – a Samizdat of satire, if you will. One such effort sprang from Joshua Lieblein’s musings about what might happen if he went looking for a publisher for his conservative-themed Great Canadian Novel. His satirical memo from a traumatized manuscript reader to her editor boss will brighten your day.

Justin Trudeau is in such foul odour these days he’s at risk of losing the progressive base he stole from the NDP in 2015. That’s great news for NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who until recently looked like the deader of the two men walking. But let’s not forget that Singh’s leadership got off to such a rocky start partly because of news stories about his long history of playing footsie with Sikh extremists. Gaurav Singhmar, an Edmonton writer who like Singh has roots in the Punjab, was among the first to do that story on the eve of the 2017 NDP leadership vote.